Rudolf Neugebauer

Rudolf Neugebauer (21 December 1912 – December 1944) was a German SS Hauptsturmführer during the Nazi era. He served as the head of the Vilnius Gestapo (Secret State Police) in German-occupied Lithuania and personally killed Jacob Gens.

Rudolf Neugebauer
Born(1912-12-12)12 December 1912
Austria-Hungary
Died1 January 1945(1945-01-01) (aged 32)
Budapest, Hungary
Known forPerpetration of the Holocaust
SS career
Allegiance Nazi Germany
Service/branch SS
RankSS Hauptsturmführer
Commands heldVilnius gestapo
AwardsWar Merit Cross First Class with swords

Biography

He became an SA (Sturmabteilung) of the original paramilitary wing of the NSDAP in 1931[1] (party number 1086615). In 1938, he joined the SS (SS number: 266047) and worked for the SDHA (Sicherheitsdiensthauptamt), the headquarters of the intelligence agency of the SS and NSDAP.

As the Third Reich annexed Austria, he worked for the Kripo (KriminalPolizei) and the Staatspolizei (state police) in Vienna from 1938 to 1940.[1] He was promoted to Kriminalkommissar of the Prussian zone in 1941.

From February 1942 to October 1943, he was obersturmführer[2] and headed the Vilnius Gestapo[3] as the Vilna Ghetto was in a "quiet" phase. He was commander of the Einsatzkommando 3 and took part in the Ponary massacre. He imposed the concept of "collective responsibility" where relatives of someone who escaped were executed. As such he ordered the murders of 32 relatives after the escape of several young Jewish partisans on 24 July 1943.[4] At the end of July 1943, Neugebauer set up economic restrictions on the Jewish activities (e.g. no more night work, exclusion from trading from 4 August 1943).[5] On 3 September, one testimony describes Neugebauer sparing the life of an HKP 52 worker.[6] On 4 September 1943, he murdered Jacob Gens,[7] the leader of the Judenrat (ghetto government), after he reported himself.[8][9] Gens was accused by the Gestapo of prividing money to the FPO (United Partisan Organization).[10] He ordered Bruno Kittel to liquidate the Vilna Ghetto on 22-23 September 1943 and was then transferred to the Kovno Ghetto.[11][12]

At the end of 1944, he was seconded to Budapest[11] by the Darmstadt Gestapo as the Budapest Ghetto was being created and the Red Army was closing in since the beginning of the offensive on the town in 19 October 1944.

He was awarded the War Merit Cross First Class with swords (Kriegsverdienstkreuz 1.Klasse mit Schwertern) for exceptional service "not in direct connection with combat".[13]

He was buried at the communal cemetery of Salzburg.[14]

See also

References
  1. "Rudolf Neugebauer (1912 – 1945)". www.gedenkorte-europa.eu. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  2. Arad, Yitzhak. Ghetto In Flames. KTAV Publishing House, Inc.
  3. Shneidman, N. N. (2002-01-01). The Three Tragic Heroes of the Vilnius Ghetto: Witenberg, Sheinbaum, Gens. Mosaic Press. ISBN 978-0-88962-785-7.
  4. Levine, Allan (2010-07-13). Fugitives of the Forest: The Heroic Story Of Jewish Resistance And Survival During The Second World War. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4617-5005-5.
  5. Tauber, Joachim (2015-08-31). Arbeit als Hoffnung: Jüdische Ghettos in Litauen 1941-1944 (in German). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-11-041573-5.
  6. Good, Michael (2009-08-25). The Search for Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews, Expanded Edition. Fordham Univ Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-2442-5.
  7. "Final Days of the Vilna Ghetto - Vilna During the Holocaust - The Jerusalem of Lithuania: The Story of the Jewish Community of Vilna". www.yadvashem.org. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  8. Voren, Robert van (2011). Undigested Past: The Holocaust in Lithuania. Rodopi. ISBN 978-94-012-0070-7.
  9. Shneidman, Norman N. (2002). The Three Tragic Heroes of the Vilnius Ghetto, Shneidman, Norman N. Mosaic Press. p. 130. ISBN 9780889627857.
  10. Gilbert, Martin (1985). he Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War. New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 608. ISBN 0-8050-0348-7.
  11. Bartrop, Paul R.; Grimm, Eve E. (2019-01-11). Perpetrating the Holocaust: Leaders, Enablers, and Collaborators. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-4408-5897-0.
  12. "Bsmart web site Bsmart web site The Fate of the Corpse-Burners who". faitelson.bsmart.co.il. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  13. "Neugebauer, Rolf - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  14. "Salzburg (Kommunalfriedhof – private Gedenksteine), Salzburg, Österreich - Onlineprojekt Gefallenendenkmäler". www.denkmalprojekt.org. Retrieved 2020-05-05.

Bibliography
  • Dieckmann 2011, Bd. 1, S. 496ff.; Bd. 2, p. 1269ff.
  • Gräfe, Karl-Heinz: Vom Donnerkreuz zum Hakenkreuz, Berlin 2010, p. 476
  • Eckert, Christina: Die Mordstätte Paneriai (Ponary) bei Vilnius, in: Bartusevičius u.a. (Hg.): Holocaust in Litauen, Köln 2003, p. 132–142
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